Coyotes in our midst here in Massachusetts

Sunday

Mar 29, 2009 at 12:01 AMMar 29, 2009 at 12:43 PM

The howling of coyotes at night can send a chill up one's spine, yet it can also be hauntingly beautiful. It is amazing that these wild creatures live among us in every mainland town on in Massachusetts but are very rarely seen.

Ann Mazar

The howling of coyotes at night can send a chill up one's spine, yet it can also be hauntingly beautiful. It is amazing that these wild creatures live among us in every mainland town on in Massachusetts but are very rarely seen.

Many people fear coyotes, but their maligned reputation is undeserved. They serve the essential predator role to keep our local ecosystem healthy. Marc Bekoff, a professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado, describes coyotes as "remarkably intelligent, playful, mischievous, cunning and social ..."

If you ever saw a coyote gracefully loping across a field or stalking prey, you would know immediately that it was not its relative, the domestic dog. A coyote pack usually consists of a mating pair and two or three offspring, who help to raise the next litter of pups. The pack covers a territory of 5 to 10 square miles.

Sometimes people think that coyotes are more numerous than they really area, because they hear the same coyotes on different ends of their territory. According to Massachusetts Wildlife Biologist Jonathan G. Way, in the winter four howling coyotes can sound like 10 because they change the octaves and decibels of their howling.

He notes that this may have evolved to make them sound more numerous to other coyotes, not to freak out their human neighbors! Coyotes are very territorial. They keep other coyotes out of their area, which discourages breeding by other transient coyotes. They self regulate and naturally keep their density low.

Way has followed 50 coyotes in the wild and raised a litter of pups to observe their habits and to conduct research. He has found far too many coyotes are shot and poisoned unnecessarily. He has seen firsthand how coyotes mourn when they are separated from their families.

The origin of the Eastern coyote started about a century ago when humans killed nearly every wolf living in New England. The prominent theory is that the few wolves that were left bred with the Western coyotes, which would explain why the Eastern coyote is the largest, weighing on average 30 to 40 pounds. The hybrid wolf-coyote colonized into New England in the 1930s through the '70s, filling the role of the predator left open with the extinction of the wolves. This wild canine amazingly adapted to an ever-changing habitat.

Coyotes keep the populations of rodents, groundhogs, raccoons and other small animals in check. Cranberry farmers on the Cape welcome the free service of coyotes eating rodents that damage their crops. There is also speculation that coyotes may play an important role in keeping the deer population in check by killing the weak and younger deer.

Sometimes the small animals they eat can include a domestic cat, small dog or small livestock. As a safeguard, dogs should be kept on a leash or in an area with a five-foot fence and brought inside at night. Cats should always be kept inside, to protect the cat and improve the songbird population. Farmers can use fences, a guard llama or guard dogs. As Cheri VanderSluis of the Maple Farm Sanctuary in Mendon explained, "Since Jim (her husband) and I have had our Maremma Livestock Guard Dogs to protect our smaller farm animals, we have not had one loss to coyote predation in 15 years. We can now appreciate the coyote's beauty and grace."

A healthy coyote can be out during the day. If you see one, welcome the rare view. If the coyote is too close for comfort, make a lot of noise and wave your arms and they should quickly run away. Coyotes are wild animals and should never be fed. Pets' food should not be left outside and garbage can lids should always be tightly shut. Feeding coyotes will make them dependent on this food. They may lose their ability to survive in the wild. It could make them become bold around humans, expecting more food. If a coyote is very slow moving and acting sickly or abnormally, you should call your local animal control officer.

With all the environmental problems in the world, there can be a comfort knowing that there is wildness right outside our doors. Coyotes have an important role to play in the ecosystem keeping the balance in nature. More research and less indiscriminate killing needs to be done on these remarkable creatures. For more information visit www.easterncoyoteresearch.com/index.html and read Suburban Howls, by Jonathan Way.

MetroWest Daily News contributor Anne Mazar is an environmental advocate and a member of the Mendon Land Use Committee.